


The Hunters Of Artemis

by greatappreciations, Love_Sparkles_Happiness



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Multi, No BOO Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 10:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2384882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greatappreciations/pseuds/greatappreciations, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Love_Sparkles_Happiness/pseuds/Love_Sparkles_Happiness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico and Reyna come across friends, old and new. And friends can often become something more...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hunters Of Artemis

** Reyna **

‘Shit’, Reyna murmured, backing away from the pack of wolves. She looked down at the fallen son of Hades, lying at her feet, before reflexively scooping him up in a fireman’s lift. Nico was light thanks to his time in Tartarus, but her muscles still ached from the added weight. He was so much more peaceful unconscious; he almost looked cute when he wasn’t scowling- but scowling was his go-to facial expression when awake. Fair enough. The poor boy had a lot to scowl about.

Reyna gave up on subtlety and turned to run as fast as she could with her bad ankle and sleep deprivation. Thanks to years of training, her feet danced over the crowded woodland floor. Still, it took a considerable amount of effort. _Damn these rocks._

The praetor could feel Nico’s shallow breaths on her shoulder, but he didn’t make a sound. At least he was breathing. Worse had happened with that sea serpent last week (who knew they lived in rivers too?) She shuddered at the thought of having to resuscitate Nico. Now, Jason… _That_ would be different. For one thing, Jason was the sort of person she wanted to keep alive – if only because she still sort of like-liked him. Sure, Piper would kill her, but she could still dream, right? If only their whole life hadn’t been messed up. Not that it mattered right now; the rest of her life was currently looking pretty short.

She had to focus now. Survive today, live tomorrow. And get this stupid statue back to her ancient enemies (Hades knew _why_ ).

Hearing growling noises from behind her, she glanced back at the wolves. Their teeth were bared ferociously, but that wasn’t what scared Reyna. Its eyes were what truly terrified her. She’d never seen wolves with golden eyes before, but she’d heard of them. She cursed every God on Olympus she could think of and muttered a few other colourful phrases.

At this point, she was desperate and even found herself missing Coach Hedge, bless his furry butt. The old satyr was iris-messaging his wife Mellie right by the river when the sea monster attacked. He was alright, but had broken a hoof and Mellie insisted on him going home. Reyna may have complained when he was present, but he wished the grumpy protector was here. He’d have been useful right now- or rather, his baseball bat would.

As Reyna sprinted deeper into the woods, the terrain became more treacherous and she found herself understanding the meaning of ‘pitch black’. She knew that there was no way she could run much further. The wolves were close, so close that she could practically feel their breath on her heels and _boy_ did they need a mint.

 _Di immortales,_ she was too out of shape for this; too reliant on Skippy, her late, faithful Pegasus. Her muscles burnt, every breath hurt her chest and any second now she was going to-

Fall. The ground hit her face hard and she grudgingly resigned herself to death. At least it would be quick; those wolves looked hungrier than Percy at dinner but these wolves were so much more _evil_ than a few gross blue sandwiches. She missed Percy, she missed Jason, heck, she even missed Piper. Anyone right now would help.

But the wolves weren’t pouncing yet. With each thumping, panicked heartbeat the wolves crept nearer and nearer. Reyna was reminded of that stupid games she had played with Hylla years ago.

_What’s the time, Mr. Wolf_

_Boom boom._

_Three o’clock._

_Boom boom._

_Four o’clock._

_Boom boom._

_Five o’clock._

_Boom boom._

**_Dinner time._ **

Except it wasn’t dinner time- the wolves weren’t attacking, Something silver whistled past Reyna’s left ear and she jumped back, cracking her head on the nearest tree trunk. Her hand flew to her skull immediately as the pain began to flood through it. _Oh Hell_ , Reyna thought. This was going to be the mother of all headaches. Something sticky dripped through her fingers: blood. Even as the wolves were chased off, she didn’t see who her saviours were, or even if they were good or bad. She just remembered a pair of vibrant blue eyes, before everything went dark.

** Nico  **

Therapy. Nico snorted. The Hunters of Artemis wanted to give him _therapy_. Crazy girls, but you know what? They supplied hot chocolate and protected people with their awesome arrows – let’s let the crazy females with weapons do as they please.

It wasn’t Thalia that was the problem. No – far from it. It was those other girls, the really weird ones – and gods of Olympus was Thalia weird enough – Tori, Elaina and their tag-along… Cassandra.

And they were nice, and only trying to help, and they _were_ beautiful he supposed, even though he knew they were off limits. But they weren’t Nico’s type anyway. Wrong gender.

Nico tried to stop thinking about him, about Percy, but it would’ve taken an inhuman effort to push the boy from his mind. _Everything_ related to him: every single blue object was an immediate connection; every flower reminded Nico of the white mallow flowers that had been in Bianca’s hair on the morning where Percy first saved them; every reflective surface was Riptide’s blade, slicing through the air, to rescue Nico from many a sticky situation.

Maybe the problem was that Nico had spent too much time around his hero, but still, Nico felt like every moment they had spent together had been too short. Just like this journey now couldn’t be short enough.

All in all, it had been an _excellent_ week for Nico so far – and it was only Tuesday. Monster attacks from every side in every goddamn situation and now these lunatic ladies. _Why_ did he have to write a list of situations he’d felt bad in?

It just reminded him of the many times he’d messed up.

 

 _1)_ _The time when he’d let Bianca go without following her._ Although really, that wasn’t his fault. Percy did promise…

 

But Nico wasn’t going to think about Percy, was he?

 

_2)_ _When Nico had nearly killed Per-_

 

Oh dammit, this was harder than it looked.

 

_3)_ _When he had admitted to Jason how he felt about Per-_

 

Nico scrunched up the paper into a ball, wiping off the ink before brushing an angry tear away from his eye.

‘I should’ve just died in Tartarus. No one wants me here or anywhere else.’

A small movement caught the corner of his eye. Nico jumped back, startled, his Stygian Iron sword whipping out to face the intruder.

‘Whoa, Nico! Take a chill pill man.’ A head, complete with jaw length, golden hair emerged as Nico cleared his eyes of blurry tears. Nico lowered his blade, mildly embarrassed.

‘Oh. Hey Cassandra’ he said, straightening up, his back muscles so tight that his shoulders began to crack painfully.

Cassandra moved closer and Nico moved back, before finding out the hard way that there was no room to move into – his head slammed straight into the wall. Cassandra was right there in an instant, a daughter of Apollo so powerful that not only could she heal wounds with her touch, but she also shone like the radiant sun.

And Nico hated her for it. How could she spend her life in the light while he suffered in the dark and distant shadows?

‘Please Nico, Cassandra’s a very formal name, don’t ya think? Call me Cass.’ She said, one of her hands still on his head although the pain was long gone. The other twirled around with her messy but shining hair, her flushed face so close that it would just take one small movement, one small jerk forward to close the gap between their lips. Her beautiful, beautiful lips would be kissing his, and then he’d kiss back…

But he didn’t want to. Nico pushed past her, stepping diagonally. For the love of Zeus, didn’t this girl understand the words ‘personal space’? And boy could Nico use a lot of personal space right now.

He just needed to get away from … Percy. No, from _himself_.

‘What were you saying before? Something about Tartarus?’ her eyes widened dramatically, taking up almost half of her face. ‘Have you _been_ there?’

‘Yes.’ Nico snapped out, irritated. He’d forgotten she was still there. He seemed to be doing this often, zoning out that is, and his personal ‘therapists’ were trying everything to help him concentrate. Nothing worked. Percy was elsewhere, so Nico’s mind was, too.

‘I’m sorry Cassandra.’ Her head drooped slightly in disappointment as he used her full name – that was an intended blow to her heart. ‘I have to go. Things to do. Places to visit. People to see.’

And by that, Nico meant sitting on the other side of the Hunters camp for the next three hours, alone. Missing dinner again. Missing conversations again.

Missing out on life.

** Reyna **

When Reyna woke, someone was stroking her hair. It felt kind of good, and she wondered if she was still dreaming. She’d had a wonderful, extremely vivid dream: Jason loved her after all! But wait… those weren’t Jason’s fingers, they were too long and slim. It definitely wasn’t a dream either, Reyna was sure of _that_. She scrambled away from the strange person, panicked.

‘Who are you?’ she asked. The strange girl had electric (and somewhat familiar) blue eyes and short, spiky black hair, encircled by a silver band.

‘I am Thalia. Daughter of Zeus, Hunter of Artemis.’

‘Where am I? What am I doing here?’

‘Calm down.’ Thalia rested her hand on Reyna’s shoulder to stop her from moving, handing her a cup of delicious smelling hot chocolate. ‘You were attacked by wolves. We saved you. You have a few stitches so try to be careful.’

It all made sense now. ‘Thanks.’ She said, grateful for the rescue, until she remembered something- or someone.

‘Nico! Is he ok? The boy I was wi-’

‘Don’t worry. He’s fine. A bit dazed but he’s survived worse.’

Reyna frowned. These people, there was something vaguely suspicious about them. ‘Wait, you know him?’

‘We go a long way back. He’s in good hands here. How are you feeling?’

‘All right I guess. All things considering.’ Reyna subtly placed the hot chocolate onto the bedside table. She didn’t quite trust these people yet and at Poison Class at Camp… well, let’s just say better safe than sorry.

‘Get some rest. You’ll be safe here.’

Even with her doubts and fears, Reyna wasn’t exactly about to turn down an offer of sleep and shelter, so she settled back down amidst the blankets and pillows and tried to sleep.

** Nico **

‘Nico!’ Thalia’s blue eyes appeared stormier than usual. ‘Are you even listening to me?’

Suddenly, Nico snapped out of his trance, confused. ‘What? Sorry Thalia. What were you saying?’

Shaking her head, Thalia perched on the ground next to Nico. Huh. He’d forgotten that he was taller than her. She always seemed so looming when she was standing. ‘I’m worried about you Nico. What’s up? You know you can tell me anything… I’m your friend, aren’t I, idiot?’

Yeah. The beginning of that small speech was too soft for Thalia - it was almost reassuring to her that ‘idiot’ at the end. At least now he knew she wasn’t going mad.

‘I’m fine Thalia. Just sad about… Bianca.’ Nico inwardly winced at having to use his beloved dead sister as an excuse. Who lies about that stuff? Nico groaned. He was going to burn in Hell some day.

The daughter of Zeus draped her arm around her friend’s shoulder. ‘Oh, Nico. I understand what it’s like to lose a sibling, remember?’ Of course.

Jason. Dang, that guy was hot. Nothing on Percy of course, but then again… who was?

Pulling back, Thalia did what Nico was dreading. Ask more questions. ‘That was a while ago, Nico. What brought this on now?’

‘Cassandra.’ The more Nico thought about this, the more he realised it was true. ‘She… reminds me of her.’ Thalia’s eyes lit with recognition.

‘Cass? Of course! Why didn’t I see that? You’ve been avoiding her since you first came!’

Nico squirmed uncomfortably but with Thalia’s arm grounding him, he couldn’t just take off and run, as he wanted to. No, as he always did. Wait, she’d been watching him? He shook the thought off. Even Thalia couldn’t be that perceptive. No.

‘Umm, Thalia? There’s something else… I think she likes me. In a more-than-just-a-friend-and-victim way.’ Damn. Yeah, that’s right, just talk to the _Lieutenant of Artemis_ and probably get _one of her hunters_ fired, Nico. Because that’s a great idea.

‘Yeah, I noticed, but you don’t like her, do you? If you did, then you would’ve kissed her the other day.’ Nico gaped at her open mouthed while she gave him one of her best I-know-everything smirks.

Nico resisted the temptation to laugh. You couldn’t hide anything from Thalia.

He relaxed into her arm, settling for a smile. Oh all right, a small, childlike giggle escaped his lips as well. ‘Uh-huh. Not my type.’

‘Wrong gender.’ Normally Nico would’ve taken her up on this, denied it flat, but he wasn’t surprised she’d noticed. Thalia’s blue eyes were as sharp as the hawks that circled her father’s domain. Besides, they were like, best friends – Thalia wouldn’t judge.

Nico closed his eyes slowly, relaxing in the afternoon sun, feeling warm and _happy_ for once. ‘Yep,’ he agreed. Gods of Olympus, he hadn’t felt this safe for years. Here with Thalia… she was like the sister he’d lost. Of course, Hazel would always be on his mind as well, but she wasn’t here with him now, was she? When he’d needed someone?

Nico knew he was being unfair to her, but Hazel’s love couldn’t have matched Thalia’s if she’d tried.

As Nico snuggled into her sisterly hold he whispered ‘Thank you for- for everything. For caring. Thank you for being my friend despite our differences.’

Pulling him closer, Thalia whispered back ‘Maybe we’re not as different as you think, Nico.’

But the son of Hades was asleep.

** Reyna **

Over the next few days, Reyna met most of the other hunters whilst her various wounds healed. There was no question of sincerity and trust between them now. They were all nice enough, but Thalia made her feel most safe; even happy. She was sharp and funny but managed to be warm and caring, a balance Reyna had never got right. She had to admit, those bright blue eyes really brightened her day.

Nico didn’t seem to be having as great a time. He didn’t like the hunters and they didn’t like him.  This one girl kept pestering him, but Reyna wasn’t worried. She was pretty sure Nico didn’t swing that way.

What was the hunters’ whole deal anyway? They swore off men, sure. But what about other genders? Reyna wasn’t _exactly_ gay but she wasn’t narrow-minded. It’s not like Romans really care about that sort of thing- the old myths were full of homosexuality. Life at camp was too short to care about things like that.

And yes, Reyna really liked Thalia. _Like-_ liked her. Reyna wasn’t very good with people and didn’t always get on with them. But something about this hunter was different. She was so… _alive._ And Hades knows, Reyna needed some life and energy. She’d never make a move though. Last time that had ended awfully. Reyna didn’t want to ruin another perfectly good friendship.

So the day came for them to leave. Both Nico and Reyna were fully healed (and to be honest, had been for a few days). But Reyna didn’t want to go.

Thalia pulled her into a warm hug.  She smelt of chocolate and pine, warm and comforting despite her harsh appearance. Reyna relaxed and realised that Thalia was safe and comforting. Maybe because she was (basically) immortal. Maybe because she was a leader. Reyna didn’t really know but she did know she couldn’t just leave.

‘Good luck out there.’ Thalia smiled. ‘Stay safe.’

‘I’ll try, Sparky.’

‘Alright, Wolf-bait.’

Reyna felt her heart beat faster. Like it was with the wolves, but way _way_ nicer. Thalia brushed the praetor’s hair behind her ear and before Reyna could say anything, leant in and pressed a gentle kiss on her lips.

‘See you around?’ she asked.

Reyna grinned. ‘Definitely. Call me after the war.’

Reyna hoisted her backpack over her shoulder and suddenly the goodbye didn’t feel as permanent. She noticed Nico staring at her and smiled.

‘Ready to go, Ghost Boy?’

‘Of course. You two are adorable by the way.’

‘Shut up or I’ll throw you to the wolves.’

‘Worked out pretty well last time.’ Thalia muttered. ‘Go on, get to Camp Half Blood. And tell my brother I say hi.’

‘Your brother?’

‘Jason. You know him, right?’

Ah.

**Author's Note:**

> co-written with a friend from school during several lessons. we figured this was more important. kudos/reviews make our hearts sing.


End file.
